"It's edible, but I wouldn't exactly call it food". LOL! Do you mean an in universe explanation? I'm not aware of one. In reality, it looks like a garden variety slab of gelatin, perhaps like a big hockey puck shaped Gummy Bear

My favorite part of that scene is that it kind of has a quiet squishy sound when Picard bites into it, & then it kind of softly splats when he puts it down

For some inexplicable reason, I actually like this TNG episode. My only issue is that I don't remember there being any water. That would be the 1st necessity

Big dude licks it, but Picard takes a nibble & chews it down. So I figure they made something edible for the scene. It's pretty easy to make a gelatin slab from powdered gelatin packs which are abundant & cheap

& I agree with Mott. This is a pretty neat topic, that I haven't discussed before

I don't know why, but this thing has always fascinated me, too. I love how it dispenses from this machine and how careful Picard is biting off of it. I'd also guess this is some kind of gelatin mix. It probably tastes like strawberry or some other kind of red fruit.

As for the episode itself, I always had a soft spot for this one. It has some Twilight Zone-esque qualities to it. It's fun to guess who exactly is the enemy amoung the group. And it's nice to see Stewart out of character on the Enterprise.

Not many people know this (though probably many here I'd bet), but gelatin is made from collagen, which comes from animal bones and skin. Looking it up on Google/Wikipedia, it's derived from pork skins, pork, horses, and cattle bones, or split cattle hides. Its composition is 84%-90% protein, 1%-2% mineral salts and 8%-15% water. Gelatin contains no fat and has about 95 calories per ounce. An ounce of gelatin satisfies about 2% of your daily needs for iron and calcium. By itself, it's essentially odorless and tasteless.

Personally, I always assumed that the gelatin discs in "Allegiance" were made from the collagen from the bodies of the previous inhabitants of the prison cell! Brings a whole new darker spin to the episode, huh? What would've happened to them if Picard hadn't discovered that the Starfleet cadet was an imposter and the aliens ended the experiment?

Personally, I always assumed that the gelatin discs in "Allegiance" were made from the collagen from the bodies of the previous inhabitants of the prison cell! Brings a whole new darker spin to the episode, huh? What would've happened to them if Picard hadn't discovered that the Starfleet cadet was an imposter and the aliens ended the experiment?

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That would be a bit at odds with their later statements though.

"We were merely curious. We meant no harm."
"We did not, after all, injure you in any way."

Personally, I always assumed that the gelatin discs in "Allegiance" were made from the collagen from the bodies of the previous inhabitants of the prison cell! Brings a whole new darker spin to the episode, huh? What would've happened to them if Picard hadn't discovered that the Starfleet cadet was an imposter and the aliens ended the experiment?

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That would be a bit at odds with their later statements though.

"We were merely curious. We meant no harm."
"We did not, after all, injure you in any way."

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Granted. But that's what they said when they were trapped by Picard. They were freaking out and wanted to be set free... they would've said anything! Should we simply assume that those statements were 100% truthful, considering their deceptive behavior on display throughout the episode? As Picard says just after that, "[Unlawful] Imprisonment is an immoral assault, regardless how you choose to justify it." Or words to that effect. What else were they capable of?

Now to be fair, the teleplay makes absolutely no hint of this kind of sinister origin for the food at all. This is all it says:

Picard stops at the feeder, pulls out a "hockey puck"
-- it's a dark, translucent disk of solid but malleable
material, sort of a gigantic gumdrop. Not very
appealing. Picard pulls off a small hunk, examines it.